Ruth Ehrhardt

Ruth is a Certified Professional Midwife (NARM), a doula (WOMBS (ZA) / Paramanadoula (UK)), and a Helping Babies Breathe facilitator and master trainer. With colleague Lana Petersen, she started Home Birth South Africa in 2010, a web database for those seeking information and advice on home birth in South Africa. Together, they also run the Cape Town Home Birth Gatherings, a quarterly gathering for those seeking information and support on home birth in Cape Town and surrounds. She is the author of The Basic Needs of a Woman in Labour, a book based on the work of Dr Michel Odent and which explores the hormone oxytocin and the environmental factors that affect it. This book has been translated into Italian and is currently being translated into Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, French and German. She also works with a group of midwives who facilitate Compassion tutorials for 4th and 5th year medical students at the University of Cape Town. She currently works with Lana Petersen and Caitlyn Collins is part of the team that organises The Cape Town Midwifery and Birth Conference. Her personal website and blog is www.truemidwifery.com